SIXTUS V

(April 24, 1585 —
August 27, 1590

Allegorical figure of Roma, seated, with various treasures gathered on all sides

Engraver: Lorenzo di Parma
Mazio, 136.
Spink, 761.
.

AE

Obv.

• SIXTVS • V • PONT • MAX •

ANN • III •

Bust of the Pope, r., tonsured and bearded, wearing cope

Rev.

CVRA PONTIFICIA

The Blessed Virgin with the Christ Child, c., surrounded by four figures, representing the foci of the new street system constructed by order of Sixtus V: S. Lorenzo, S.Giovanni Laterano, S. Maria Maggiore.

St. Francis of Assisi holding up the collapsing walls of the Lateran Basilica (according to the dream of Pope Innocent III, recorded in the Life of St. Francis) Sixtus V restored the building.

Mazio, —
Spink, #768.
.

The story of the dream is told by Thomas of Celano in the Second Life of St. Francis, chapter 11 (ed. L. Amoni [Roma 1880] p. 30; ed. A.G.F. Howell [London: Methuen] p. 162). The dream is commemorated in a fresco by Giotto in the upper church of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi.See F.Artaud de Montor, Histoire des souverains Pontifes romains IV (Paris 1851), p. 415. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), s.v. "Francis", p. 223.

The Dioscuri, on large inscribed bases, the pair erected in the Piazza del Quirinale (Montecavallo) by Sixtus V, having been removed from the ruins of the Baths of Constantine.

Mazio, 145
Spink, #800.
.

F. Artaud de Montor, Histoire des Souverains Pontifes romains IV (Paris 1851) p. 414-415. The statues were believed to have been the work of Pheidias and of Praxiteles; they are in fact Roman copies of Greek originals, erected in the 4th century A.D. They were erected at their present site under the direction of Domenico Fontana, who was responsible for the inscriptions.